A Ride From Odin

-By Mr. Bjerstedt

[Original document: http://luf.ht.lu.se/SerM/04501-05000/08501-09000/M%208964%20s%201%20-%208.pdf ]

Province: Småland

District: Allbo Härad

Parish: Virestad

Year of writing: 1940

Written down by: Harald Olsson

Adress: Tegelvägen 5, Lund

Told by: Farmer. Johan Gresell

Born the year 1896 in Western Torsås

Odin was promised by the Lord that he would be allowed to fly in the air on his horse. It's an eight-legged horse, Sleipnir. As long as the world stands he has the right to ride in the air.

There was a poor boy who was employed in Stockholm. He had written to his parents, that he would maybe get home for Christmas. But he was lacking money for the journey. So he went to a cemetery in Stockholm, and there he walked around for a long while until the night fell and thought about his home and his parents. When he walked around there a man appeared and asked him, why he walked around there and why he was sad. He replied, that he had considered travelled home for Christmas, but that he was lacking the money. The man was no less than Odin, but the boy didn't know that.

Odin said: I'm going to go there anyway, if you want to come with me you can! They sat on the horse that Odin had outside the cemetery. Odin sat down first, and the boy sat down behind him. Odin said: Hold on to me, and we'll go! The boy just felt a breeze. But that they flew in the air he didn't understand. He didn't get scared until he heard that the horse hit something. Odin said that it was just the horse that had hit the church of Rydaholm. And the horse dropped a horseshoe of silver. Odin said: Don't be scared, just hold on to me! And it was Christmas night when this happened. Odin told the boy, that he should look for the silver horseshoe, because it was of high value. And then Odin sat him down on the cemetery. But he wasn't allowed to leave it before the clergy came to the matins, because otherwise “it would be his death”, Odin said.

No one was happier than the poor boy from Rydaholm, when he came home and when he had found the horseshoe and sold it. He got a lot of money for it and got pretty rich.

This I have heard being told in my home village.